Is Melt® Organic Buttery Spread “Real Food?”

The following information has been adapted from Michael Pollan’s book, “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual” where he explores the idea of real food.

To summarize, real food includes the plants, animals, and fungi people have been eating for generations versus the highly processed products (“edible food-like substances”) of modern food science and the food industry.

Mr. Pollan elaborates by suggesting you probably are not eating real food if the following general rules of thumb apply:

Your grandmother or great-grandmother would not recognize the ingredients as food.

It contains chemical additives and or corn and soy derivatives.

It contains additives that you would not cook with yourself or that you do not recognize (e.g., ethoxylated diglycerides, cellulose, xanthan gum, TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone)).

It contains high fructose corn syrup or it contains any sugar or sweetener listed in the top 3 ingredients (e.g., barley malt, beet sugar, brown rice syrup, cane sugar, corn sweetener, dextrin, fructo-oligosaccharides, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, sucrose, invert sugar, polydextrose, sucrose, turbinado sugar, organic sugar, raw cane sugar, etc). The same applies for artificial sweeteners since they do not lead to weight loss and may heighten cravings for more sweetness.

A third grader cannot pronounce all of the ingredients.

Food products contain the wordoid “lite” or terms “low-fat” or “non-fat” in their names. Many low-fat and non-fat foods are higher in refined carbohydrates (sugar). Excessive carbohydrate intake is more strongly associated with weight gain, obesity, and secondary illness that go with them than consuming fat. Eat the real thing in moderation.

It has a long list of ingredients (this is different from following a recipe).

You found it in the peripheries of the supermarket and not in the middle aisles of the store. Processed foods dominate the center aisles while cases of mostly fresh foods line the walls; exceptions include food products like yogurts flavored with high fructose corn syrup and margarines containing corn/ soy oils and hydrogenated fat.

It will not eventually rot.

You got it through the window of your car.

Melt® Organic Buttery Spread easily qualifies as real food even though it is intended as a replacement for butter (and therefore could be considered an imitation food).

With that said, Melt® Organic Buttery Spread is a far cry from the margarines of our parent’s generation.

Melt is organic, non-GMO (!) and contains no hydrogenated oils, artificial ingredients, synthetic preservatives or corn/ soy derivatives and it never will.

Melt is made with only wholesome ingredients like virgin coconut oil, flax oil, and others, providing you with a balanced combination of organic saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats in a rich and creamy format that is a pleasure to eat.

Melt offers an Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of 2:1, which you simply do not and will not see matched by any other food product in this part of the grocery store.

We hope you enjoy Melt® Organic Buttery Spread’s goodness and look forward to seeing you in the grocery store!